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Medical blogging is blogging in the field of medicine. It is a relatively recent addition to the medical field. While its closest predecessor medical journalism; is about 300 years old, medical blogging is currently about a decade old. This blogpost aims at exploring the field of medical blogging and comparing it to related disciplines when relevant. It examines some opinions of bloggers, and reviews some medical blogs aiming to infer reasons for blogging, derive technique or outline of blog and hopefully arriving at a conclusion to the future prospects of medical blogging.
Medicine is the practice of the art and science of healing 'ars medicina'. It is a branch of applied science, which started probably in the pre-historic era. The practice continued to flourish, specialise, sub-specialise and sub-sub-specialise.
The word blog is most probably derived from the contraction of the words 'web log' which is a form of website that is more interactive, allowing comments, tagging,and is displayed in counter-chronological order from the most recent at the top of the page. The term 'blog' is currently used as a noun as well as a verb. The aggregation of blogs is named 'blogosphere', and the blog writer is named 'blogger'. There are single author blogs and multi-author blogs, they are as diverse in there content as the diversity of the bloggers, with regards to form they can be written text, images, videos, sounds or combination of more than one medium. The term 'blogroll' is referred to blogs followed by a person. Blogging is just more than a decade old now. However, the number of blogs have been increasing exponentially at times. The concept of blogging is considered as one of the components of the concept of web 2.0.
Medical blogs refer to blogs that are primarily concerned with medical/health subjects. The name 'medical blog' is derived from content based taxonomic classification.
Medical blogs can be classified by author, there are blogs by physicians, nurses, patients, medical institutions, medical journals, and anonymous blogs. They can be classified by target audience as either to other doctors, patients and carers, general public or a combination of more than one target. There are also medical blogs by patients or patient blogs that expresses their viewpoints. A study examined medical student blogs and concluded that they might be beneficial for students to reflect on their experience (Pinilla et al, 2013). The Nephrology Dialysis and Transplantation (NDT)
made it own blog (El Nahas, 2012). The American Journal of Kidney Disorder (AJKD) made its own official blog (Desai et al, 2013). During the same year, the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association launched their official blog (Sanossian & Merino, 2013). Pereira discussed the blogs by neurosurgeons (Pereira et al, 2012).
In the BMJ doc2doc blogs, they do not have to meet certain number of word count but will have to be reviewed prior to publication. KevinMD requires blog posts to be of maximum five hundred words, Medical-Reference require a minimum of one thousand words. Meducation requires a blog post to vary between 1500-3000 word. Independent blogs may show more variation in the number of words per blog post. Some blogs are predominantly in text format, other may combine multimedia or get linked to other medical blogs.
The BMJ doc2doc tentatively recommends blog posting to be in the frequency of one to two blogs/month. Chrislyn Pepper, a medical blog writer, (2013) states that medical blogging can aim to be 'three blogs of 300+ words each week and three to four short blogs of less than a hundred words five days per week.'
Medical bloggers seem to have various reasons to blog, some communicate clinical data to fellow doctors, in this case some blogs seem to resemble research or review articles in content and language which can contain medical jargon. There are diagnosis blogs that were studied by Miller and Pole (2010). The comparison between the electronic predecessors of blogging including Electronic Bulletin Board, USENET, and emailing in addition to the why of blogging in general has been discussed by Mongkolwat
(Mongkolwat et al, 2005). Some put their hypotheses forward, others share clinical experience or discuss a clinical matter. Some bloggers direct their attention to the general public providing information about medical topics. Some discuss issues which can be difficult to be put in research topics. Dr Rob discussed that importance of medical blogging as an equivalent to the concept of democracy in an online world. Doctor Blogger website offers 10 reasons for medical blogging including public education, correction of misconceptions and establishing a name. For the medical blogger's direct benefit Medical Rant blog offers an overview of personal benefits from medical blogging including stimulation of thought and stimulation of academic writing. Dr Wible seems to use her medical blog to promote a standard of care that seems to be a mix between the medical model and the befriending model of care. Another study examined the young adults blogging and concluded that powerlessness, loneliness, alienation, and lack of connection with others, where the primary outcomes of young adults as a result of mental health concerns (Eysenbach et al, 2012). Wolinsky (2011) enquires whether scientists should stick to popularizing science or more.
Medical blogs are essentially online activity which renders them immediately accessible to any area with internet connection, they are paperless by definition which makes them more environment friendly. The medical blogs are open access by default which adds to the accessibility, and they are decentralised which decreases control over the control and seems to accentuate diversity.
As compared to peer reviewed journals, medical blogs seem to be less referenced, are hardly ever taken as academic writing, the process of peer reviewed medical blogs is minimal if any, and they do not get reflected on resume or be considered as publication, though the term 'blogfolio' started to become a watch word. It seems hard to base clinical decisions on medical blogs. However, medical blogs can offer more diversity into research and non-research medical topics. They are published online with no delay or review time, they can comment on the most recent advances in the medical field or most contemporary issues instantaneously. Very recently, citing blogs seems to become a bit accepted. BMJ Journals have their dedicated blogs
Some online resources give a comprehensive outline on blogging in general and medical blogging in particular including video interview with a medical blogger
Michelle Guilemard in her blog makes a valid point of how medical blogging can enhance career. Medical Squid also highlighted medical blogging as a career
Kovic et al (2008) conducted a research on the medical blogosphere an concluded that 'Medical bloggers are highly educated and devoted blog writers, faithful to their sources and readers'. Miller & Pole (2010) concluded that 'Blogs are an integral part of this next stage in the development '. Stanwell-Smith (2013) discussed the aspect as an important tool to communicate with patients. The blur between academia and blogging was discussed in research blogs. (Sheema et al, 2012). During the same another study discussed the impact of blogging on research (Fausto et al, 2012).
While Baerlocher & Detsky (2008) warn in an article against the hazards of medical blogging due to potential breach of confidentiality. After an exhaustive study of the content of weblog written by health professional, Lagu reached the concern of breaching of confidentiality (Lagu et al, 2007). Rebecca Golden (2007) cites the perils of medical blogging she concludes her article saying 'Science has a peer-review process for a reason'. Brendan Koerner (2007) in wired magazines posted an article about the problems of giving medical advice via blogging. Dr Val Jones makes a point by concluding that social media provide the 'allure of influence'. Thomas Robey (2008) offers arguments for and against medical blogging, including confidentiality, and ruining personal reputation on the negative side, while enhancing democratization of conversation and having a creative outlet on the positive side. Brendel offers an intriguing discussion to whether it would be ethical or not to monitor patients' blog to determine their health status. (Brendel, 2012).
O'Reilly voiced in 2007 the need for blogging code of conduct. The GMC published guidance on the use of social media by doctors and it included blogging as a form of social media. The Royal College of General Practitioners also published the social media high way code to offer guidance on social media including medical blogging. There is also the medblog oath online.
Flaherty (2013) argues that blogging is under attack by micro-blogging, and that it is in its deathbed. Mike Myatt in his article Is Blogging Dead, discusses various views about blogging in an era of micro-blogging The Royal College of Psychiatrists recently introduced a number of blogs including the president's blog, overseas blogs and other blogs. The medical blogging seems to occupy a middle space between the quick micro-blogging and the thoughtful research article. Its diversity and freedom are its strongest tools and can have the potential to be its worst enemies. One wonders whether the emergence of guidelines for medical blogging – given the seriousness of the content – would save medical blogging and elevate it to the next level or change the essence of it. After all, the question is how much the medical field which is a top-down hierarchy accept grass-root movement. Freedom of expression is probably at the heart of blogging. It would be logistically impossible to impose rules on it. However, guidelines and code of honour may help delineating the quality of medical blogs from each other.
This post is previously posted on doc2doc blogs.
Bibliography & Blogiography
Brendel, D. Monitoring Blogs: A New Dilemma for Psychiatrists Journal of Ethics, American Medical Association, 2012, Vol. 14(6), pp. 441-444
Desai, T., S.M.A.N.V.S.K.T.J.K.C.K.B.E.J.K.D. The State of the Blog: The First Year of eAJKD Am J Kidney Dis., 2013, Vol. 61(1), pp. 1-2
El Nahas, M. An NDT blog Nephrol Dial Transplant (2012) 27: 3377–3378, 2012, Vol. 27, pp. 3377-3378
Eysenbach, G., B.K.M.M. What Are Young Adults Saying About Mental Health? An Analysis of
Internet Blogs Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2012, Vol. 14(1)
Fausto, S. Machado, F.B.L.I.A.N.T.M.D. Research Blogging: Indexing and Registering the Change in Science 2.0 PLoS one, 2012, Vol. 7(12), pp. 1-10
Lagu, T, K.E.J.D.A.A.A.K. Content of Weblogs Written by Health Professionals J Gen Intern Med, 2008, Vol. 23(10), pp. 1642–6
Miller, EA., P.A. Diagnosis Blog: Checking Up on Health Blogs in the Blogosphere American Journal of Public Health, 2010, Vol. 8, pp. 1514-1518
Mongkolwat, P. Kogan, A.K.J.C.D. Blogging Your PACS Journal of Digital Imaging, 2005, Vol. 18(4), pp. 326-332
Pereira, JLB., K.P. d.A.L. d.C.G. d.S.A. Blogs for neurosurgeons Surgical Neurology International, 2012, Vol. 3:62
Pinilla, S. Weckbach, L.A.S.B.H.N.D.S.K.T.S. Blogging Medical Students: A Qualitative Analysis

In NeuroPsychiatry it might be difficult to locate its territory, and find its niche. This might be an uneasy endeavour as its two parent branches neurology and psychiatry are still viable, also it siblings organic psychiatry, behavioural neurology and biological psychiatry are also present. This blogpost attempts to search for the definition and domains of neuropsychiatry.
Neuropsychiatry can be defined as the 'biologic face' of mental health (Royal Melbourne Hospital, Neuropsychiatry unit). It is the neurological aspects of psychiatry and the psychiatric aspects of neurology (Pacific Neurpsychiatry Institute). It is not a new term. Many physicians used to brand themselves as neuropsychiatrists at the rise of the twentieth century. It has been looked upon with a sense of unease as a hybrid branch. Also, it was subject to pejorative connotations, as the provenance of amateurs in both parent disciplines (Lishman, 1987). The foundational claim is that 'all' mental disorders are disorders of the brain' (Berrios and Marková, 2002). The American NeuroPsychiatric Association (ANPA) defines it as 'the integrated study of psychiatric and neurologic disorders' (ANPA, 2013). The overlap between neuropsychiatry and biological psychiatry was observed (Trimble and George, 2010) as the domain of enquiry of the first and the approach of the second will meet at point. Berrios and Marková seemed to have focused on the degree of conversion among biological psychiatry, organic psychiatry, neuropsychiatry and behavioural neurology. They stated that they share the same foundational claims (FCcs): (1) mental disorder is a disorder of the brain; (2) reasons are not good enough as causes of mental disorder; and (3) biological psychiatry and its congeners have the patrimony of scientific truth. They further elaborated that the difference is primarily due to difference in historic origins. (D'haenen et al., 2002). The American Neuropsychiatric Association (ANPA) defines neuropsychiatry as the integrative study of neurological and psychiatric disorders on a clinical level, on a theoretical level; ANPA defines it as the bridge between neuroscience and clinical practice. The interrelation between both specialities is adopted by The Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists as it defines it as a psychiatric subspeciality. This seems to resonate the concept that 'biologisation' of psychiatry is inevitable (Sachdev and Mohan, 2013). The definition according to Gale Encyclopedia encompasses the interface between the two disciplines (Fundukian and Wilson, 2008). In order to acknowledge the wide use of the term 'neuropsychiatry'; the fourth edition of Lishman's Organic Psychiatry, appeared and it was renamed as 'textbook of neuropsychiatry'. The editor stated that the term is not used in its more restrictive sense (David, 2009).
Ostow backtracked the origin of biological causes for illness to humoral view of temperament.In the nineteenth century, the differentiation between both did not seem to be apparent. The schism seems to have emerged in the twentieth century. The difficulties that arose with such early adoption of neuronal basis to psychiatric disorders are that they were based on on unsubstantiated beliefs and wild logic rather than scientific substance. (Panksepp, 2004). Folstein stated that Freud and Charcot postulated psychological and social roots for abnormal behaviours, thus differentiating neurology from psychiatry. (David, 2009). The separation may have lead to alienation of doctors on both camps and helped in creating an arbitary division in their scope of knowledge and skills. The re-emergence of interest in neurospsychiatry has been described to be due to the growing sense of discomfort in the lack of acknowledgment of brain disorders when considering psychiatric symptoms (Arciniegas and Beresford, 2001).
There is considerable blurring regarding defining the territory and the boundaries of neuropsychiatry. The Royal College of Psychiatrists founded section of Neuropsychiatry in 2008. The major working groups include epilepsy, sleep disorders, brain injury and complex neurodisability. In 1987 the British NeuroPsychiatry Association was established, to address the professional need for distinction, without adopting the concept of formal affiliation with parent disciplinary bodies as the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The ANPA was founded in 1988. It issued training guide for residents. The guide included neurological and psychiatric assessments, interpretation of EEG and brain imaging techniques. With regards to the territory, it included delirium, dementia, psychosis, mood and anxiety disorders due to general medical condition. Neurpsychiatric aspects of psychopharmacologic treatments, epilepsy, neuropsychiatric aspects of traumatic brain injury and stroke. The diagnosis of movement disorders, neurobehavioural disorders, demyelinating disease, intellectual and developmental disorders, as well as sleep disorders was also included. The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) was established in Buenos Aires in 1974 to address the rising significance of biological psychiatry and to join local national societies together. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), is currently working on a biologically-based diagnosis, that incorporates neural circuits, cells, molecules to behavioural changes. The diagnostic system - named 'Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) - is agnostic to current classification systems DSM-5 & ICD-10. Especially that the current diagnostic classficiations are mostly based on descriptive rather than neurobiological aetiological basis. (Insel et al., 2010). For example, the ICD-10 F-Code designates the first block to Organic illness, however, it seems to stop short of localisation of the cause of illness apart from the common prefix organic. It also addresses adverse drug events as tardive dyskinesia but stops short of describing it neural correlates. Also, psychosocial roots of mental illness seem to be apparent in aetiologically-based diagnoses as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, acute stress reaction, and adjustment disorders, the diagnostic cluster emphasise the necessity of having 'stress'. Other diagnoses seem to draw from the psychodynamic literature, e.g. conversion[dissociative] disorder.
The need for neuropsychiatry, has been increasing as the advances in diagnostic imaging and laboratory investigations became more clinically relevant. Nowadays, there are tests as DaT-Scan that can tell the difference between neurocognitive disorder with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson's Disease. Vascular neurocognitive disorders warrant imaging as the rule rather than the exception, vascular depression has been addressed is a separate entity. Frontal Lobe Syndromes have been subdivided into orbitofrontal and dorsolateral (Moore,2008) Much training is needed to address this subspeciality.
The early cases that may have stirred up the neurological roots of psychiatric disorders can be backdated to the case of Phineas Gage, and later, the case H.M. The eearlier fruits of adopting a neuropsychiatric perspective can be shown in the writings of Eliot Slater, as he attempted to search for the scientific underpinnings of psychiatry, and helped via seminal articles to highlight the organic aspect of psychiatry. Articles like 'The diagnosis of "Hysteria", where Slater, challenged the common wisdom of concepts like hysteria and conversion, rejecting the social roots of mental illness, and presenting a very strong case for the possibility of organicity, and actual cases of for which 'hysteria' was a plain misdiagnosis was way ahead of its time prior to CT Brain. Slater even challenged the mere existence of the concept of 'hysteria. (Slater, 1965) Within the same decade Alwyn Lishman published his textbook 'Organic Psychiatry' addressing the organic aspects of psychiatric disorders. Around the same time, the pioneers of social/psychological roots of mental illness became under attack. Hans Eysenck, published his book 'Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire'. Eysenck stated clearly that the case of Anna O. seems to have been mispresented and that she never had 'hysteria' and recovered she actually had 'tuberculous meningitis' and she died of its complications (Eysenck, 1986).
To summarise, it seems difficult and may be futile to sharply delineate neurpsychiatry, biological psychiatry, organic psychiatry and behavioural neurology. However, it seems important to learn about the biological psychiatry as an approach and practice neuropsychiatry as a subspeciality. The territory is yet unclear from gross organic lesions as stroke to the potential of encompassing entire psychiatry as the arbitary distinction between 'functional' and 'organic' fades away. Perhaps practice will help to shape the domain of the speciality, and imaging will guide it. To date, the number of post-graduate studies are still low in comparison to the need for such speciality, much more board certification may be needed as well as the currently emerging masters and doctoral degrees.
This post is previously posted on bmj doc2doc blogs
Bibliography
Eysenck, H.J., Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire, Pelican Series, 1986
German E Berrios, I.S.M., The concept of neuropsychiatry: A historical overview, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 2002, Vol. 53, pp. 629-638
Kieran O’Driscoll, J.P.L., “No longer Gage”: an iron bar through the head, British Medical Journal, 1998, Vol. 317, pp. 1637-1638
Perminder S. Sachdev, A.M., Neuropsychiatry: Where Are We And Where Do We Go From Here?, Mens Sana Monographs, 2013, Vol. 11(1), pp. 4-15
Slater, E., The Diagnosis of "Hysteria", British Medical Journal, 1965, Vol. 5447(1), pp. 1395–1399
Thomas Insel, Bruce Cuthbert, R.H.M.G.K.Q.C.S.P.W., Research Domain Criteria (RDoC): Toward a New Classification Framework for Research on Mental Disorders, American Journal of Psychiatry, 2010, Vol. 167:7, pp. 748-751
Organic Psychiatry, Anthony S. David, Simon Fleminger, M. D. K. S. L. J. D. M. (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell, 2009
Neuropsychiatry an introductory approach, Arciniegas & Beresford (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 2001
Biological Psychiatry, Hugo D’haenen, J.A. den Boer, P. W. (ed.), John Wiley and Sons, 2010
Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health, Laurie J. Fundukian, J. W. (ed.), Thomson Gale, 2008
Biological Psychiatry, M. Trimble, M. G. (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell, 2010
Textbook of Neuropsychiatry, Moore, D. P. (ed.), Hodder Arnold, 2008
Textbook of Biological Psychiatry, Panksepp, J. (ed.), John Wiley and Sons, 2004
The American Neuropsychiatric Association Website www.anpaonline.org
The Royal Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Unit Website http://www.neuropsychiatry.org.au/
The British Neuropsychiatry Association website www.bnpa.org.uk
The Royal College of Psychiatrists website www.rcpsych.ac.uk
The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry website www.wfsbp.org

As a physician who regularly discusses health news online and in the media, I find myself in a very fortunate position — I am able to quickly reach vast numbers of people and provide them with credible (and hopefully impactful) information on health and wellness. Because of this, just as in clinical interactions, I know I must put patients first, choosing my words carefully so that I can provide people with facts they need to better understand their disease state and treatment options. I also know that I must be aware of the fact that as opposed to clinical encounters, there is no opportunity for patient interaction. What I say must be geared toward stimulating further conversation between members of my audience and their own private physicians. Statements must be clear and evidence-based, and stories must be reported without bias.

So here’s my first blog post. After months of threatening my Twitter followers with a literary crime, I’ve finally done it. I warned you I would. I want to write about things that are relevant to patients and the public, so I’d love to hear from you if you have any ideas. For my first…